A
usefulness of using ‘shall’ for the first person, and ‘will’ for
second and third in the indicative (or statement) mood.
So, ‘I shall do it’ when emphatic becomes ‘I
will do it’ and ‘It
will be done’ when emphatic becomes ‘It shall be done.’
22.1 Activities: emphasis
1. a. Students each write a given number of sentences each containing
some form of emphasis and underline the stressed word or

words.
b. Students each, in turn, read out one of their sentences using
their voices to convey the emphasis, for example:
We were so sick on that boat.
2. The sentence ‘Did you really do that?’ is written on the board and
students read it, emphasising each word in turn, for example:
Did you really do that?
Did you really do that? etc.
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Mood
Definition: The word ‘mood’ comes from Latin modus and refers
to the mode or manner in which an action is expressed.
Before studying mood, students should know about:
• the different kinds of sentences
• verb tenses for all kinds of statement apart from the
conditional
• auxiliary verb forms
Many people have no idea what mood means and believe that
it is an obscure, perhaps old-fashioned grammar term. In reality
mood is a verb form, which, as the term implies, describes the

For example:
Go and buy bananas.
Subjunctive or conditional mood
The word ‘subjunctive’, from Latin subjunctivus, means ‘joined
under’ and in grammar this refers to the fact that it is often
expressed in a joined, subsidiary clause (see page 170).
This mood expresses uncertainty, doubt or a wish – the ‘maybe’
situation. It is, in fact, much less complicated than in many other
languages.
It is sometimes called the conditional mood from Latin conditio
to discuss; in other words, the matter is as yet undecided. We form
the subjunctive in several ways.
1. We use auxiliaries
may or might with the bare infinitive.
For example:
We may buy some bananas.
We might have them for dinner.
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If, on the other hand, the outcome of the event has been decided,
we use might.
For example:
If you had closed the gate the cows might not have got out.
2. The verb ‘to be’ features in the majority of subjunctive forms.
In the present tense we use ‘be’ for all persons.
For example:
He suggested I be on the committee.
Be he live or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread ….
In the future we use ‘were’.
For example:

stay (not stays) at home.
c. If this be the case . . . . . . . . . .
For example: If this
be (not is) the case, we should tell the
police.
Students write one of each type in their own grammar exercise
books. Remember that each section should have a heading to
aid revision.
2. Students are given verbs with which to form sentences in each
mood, for example:
Wear –
Indicative: He is wearing his best shoes.
Imperative: Don’t wear your best shoes in the paddock.
Subjunctive: I suggested he wear his farm boots.
3. Students compose their own blessings or sayings using the subjunc-
tive mood. For homework, they could see if they can discover any
more from popular or classical literature.
Checklist: mood
Students should now be able to:
• explain the term ‘mood’ and state the three forms in English.
• explain the function of the indicative and imperative moods with
examples.
• explain the terms ‘subjunctive’ and ‘conditional’
• discuss the argument for retaining these forms in our language
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